Brigid Sinclair said without the Nurse Practitioners Transition Programme she may have walked away from her role as a nurse practitioner. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A programme supporting newly-qualified nurse practitioners in their first year of employment has been dumped despite being hailed as a success by staff who say it made the difference between staying put or walking away.
Nurse practitioners are highly-qualified nurses who could diagnose illnesses, prescribe medicine, make referrals to specialist care, and in some areas helped with gaps left by the shortage of GPs.
Funding for the Nurse Practitioners Transition Programme came to an end at the end of 2024, months before the government announced plans to double the number of nurse practitioners able to train in GP clinics to 120 per year.
Canterbury's Brigid Sinclair worked towards her goal of becoming a nurse practitioner for 10 years, but once she achieved her aim she said she contemplated walking away.
"I found that first year very isolating and incredibly challenging and was actually contemplating leaving health care all together. It was the support of that transition programme that got me through," she said.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
She said peer support from colleagues and Auckland University staff running the programme were the key to her success working at a practice, serving on boards and mentoring other nurses.
"I'm happy, feeling like I can do what I set out to do, and make a difference for patients and at a system level too."
Sinclair said she could not understand why the programme had been discontinued.
"I think if you are going to put the resources into growing the workforce you need to have some consideration of maintaining them and what happens to that workforce post-registration and supporting that transition.
"If you put all that resource into growing the nurse practitioner workforce you need to keep them as happy and healthy nurse practitioners."
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Emma Nikolajenko, who qualified as a nurse practitioner last September, said she reaped huge benefits from the programme after starting work at Greenwood Health in Motueka.
"It is really important that nurse practitioners are supported in their first and second and third years and so on. Just like new training GPs are. So that we can have good quality, safe health care and ensure we are doing the best for our patients."
Nurse Practitioners New Zealand chair Chelsea Wilmott said newly-qualified doctors received extensive support when they joined the profession, but different attitudes towards experienced nurses meant health chiefs did not seem to believe they needed the same help.
"That is not the case at all. We are taking about a change of scope. A completely different role and it is imperative that post registration support is provided for this workforce who we are asking to work in a capacity as a lead health care provider."
The Nurse Practitioner Transition programme was funded by Health New Zealand for two years in 2023 and 2024 and run by Auckland University.
Programme senior lecturer Sue Adams said research and feedback from past students showed there was a gap in support.
"We supported funding for the practice so they can have down time, so that they can have time to orientate, time to meet other local providers, specialists at the hospital, link with community resources, those types of things, and it gave them time to have longer appointments," she said.
Health New Zealand's workforce planning and development director John Snook said the Nurse Practitioner Transition Programme was a pilot programme.
"We are currently reviewing the requirements for nurse practitioner training in alignment with the current Nursing Council review of nurse practitioner education, scope and competencies, and this will include any requirements for transition into practicing as a nurse practitioner from 2026," he said.
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